You Hold It All Together

The All Sons & Daughters duo of Leslie Jordan and David Leonard wrote this song with Sandra McCracken. The Nashville-based singer-songwriter has also penned songs for the likes of Caedmon's Call and Derek Webb.

"This song came together as we were sitting with our good friend Sandra McCracken. We were talking about our stories and where we were in life, and she had this lyric, which is the first line of the song: 'it feels like an ocean of sorrow is under my skin.' She was having a conversation with a friend, and her friend responded with, 'Yes, but even the ocean eventually meets with the sand.' We were sitting there and thought that sounded like a song.

We started writing and the words came really quickly. As we were talking about the direction of the song, we thought that there is a beauty to tying in Scripture to our own situations, and we based the chorus of the song on Psalm 118:14."

The song is a track from All Sons & Daughters' Poets & Saints album. It was inspired by a trip that the duo made to Europe with author and pastor Jamie George, where they traced the lives of notable Christian poets and saints including C.S. Lewis, Martin Luther, John Newton, St. Patrick, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Augustine. Leslie Jordan explained:

"We took a trip to Europe together last summer as a group to study these poets and saints. It began in community. We had 13 people together on a bus, and we studied the lives of these people and made a small group curriculum along with the songs. Our hope and intent is for people to experience these stories in community with their families and small groups. In the writing process, we pulled in the writings of these poets and saints. It feels like a gathering on this project. It had focus and attention.

This song started in one place, and we ended up bringing Saint Patrick into the story of the song. Looking at his story and the parallels of this song, the whole bridge comes out of his profession. It's an adaptation of his journal entry. This was a very collaborative project, and the tour is a collaboration with us, Sandra and our Pastor, Jamie George. It feels very much like home."